The present invention relates to a "pop-up" or three-dimensional integral costume mask and display headgear.
There are many occasions upon which members of the public desire to wear high-quality but inexpensive decorative or novelty headwear. Such occasions typically include Mardi Gras celebrations, Halloween, sporting events, and athletic or charity events and the like. Owing to the peculiar nature of the market for such products, however, it is not feasible to offer such headwear in a variety of different sizes, and thus the design must be such that one size will truly fit all, from the smallest child's head to the largest adult's head. In addition, the requirements for the material are fairly stringent in that it must possess the degree of stiffness required to effectively present the display portion while simultaneously being resilient or yieldable enough to permit the head-encircling portion to accommodate the largest user. In addition, the material and design must work together cooperatively so as to resist stress at high-stress areas when the article is being worn.
One approach of the prior art is that presented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,659 to Lyons. Lyons teaches the selection of paperboard for the requisite degree of stiffness and attempts to overcome the lack of resiliency or expandability of such by punching out an opening for the head of the wearer in a manner so as to generally form a plurality of "fingers"surrounding the opening in the expectation that the size of the opening may be adjusted by deforming the fingers appropriately. However, as is well known, once such fingers are deformed for a certain size, such as for a parent's head, they may not be restored to satisfactorily accomodate a child's head. Further, such material rapidly loses its "springiness"once deformed, and thus the article may be worn only a very few times before it is no longer able to perform its intended function. In addition, while the "springiness" is maintained, the article is notoriously uncomfortable to wear.
An improved approach is that offered by U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,471 to Quigley, Jr. et al. The more pronounced disadvantageous features of Lyons, namely, limited wearability and discomfort, have been overcome by Quigley. Quigley employs a polyurethane foam material for the headband and display portion, but has no disclosure or suggestion for an integral mask. Indeed, the structure of Quigley is such that it cannot form a mask, but only a visor. As taught by Quigley, the display portion and the visor portion are essentially coplanar, and the structure is such that the natural restoring force of the deformed material tends to direct the visor portion up and away from the face to the position normally occupied by a visor. Thus the structure of Quigley is unsuitable for an integral mask-display headgear. Further, Quigley has no means for relieving stress at critical points, and thus may be expected to have a shorter useful lifespan.
These and other limitations and disadvantages of the prior art, and especially of the aforementioned patents, are overcome with the present invention, and commercially acceptable embodiments of an integral mask and display headgear and the like are herein provided.